How we support careers in regulation
In our 2024-2027 Strategy, UKRN committed to “making regulation an attractive career choice”.
We support this goal through the delivery of a broad range of UKRN resources; whether you are just starting out in your career, an experienced professional looking to get into regulation or already working in a regulator and looking for support with professional development and/or expanding your career into non-executive director roles.
Jobs in Regulation
UKRN’s members represent a broad spectrum of regulators with a diverse workforce, focused on improving outcomes for consumers and the UK economy.
Our members promote a culture of being inclusive and ambitious, with a focus on health and wellbeing, offering flexible working patterns, competitive salary packages and roles that are suitable for applicants at every stage of their career.
Since its launch in December 2023, the UKRN Jobs Board is proving to be an effective tool in attracting and hiring new talent across our members.
Emerging careers in regulation
UKRN is committed to championing careers in regulation. Whether you’re finishing school, studying at university or in the early stages of your career, regulation offers the opportunity to develop an interesting, diverse and fulfilling career path.
Young Professionals Network
UKRN’s Young Professionals Network is an engaging and supportive network run by and targeted at early career professionals; with members coming from graduate programmes, apprenticeships or in the early stages of their career with a desire to network and develop professionally and personally.
The network also provides opportunities to learn more about the work conducted by other member regulators and to hear from industry professionals.
Yearly, the network organizes an in-person event open to all UKRN member regulators on a relevant theme (e.g. climate change, emerging tech, career development).
Early Careers Working Group
To support strategic discussions on early careers initiatives, the UKRN Early Careers Working Group meets regularly to discuss strategies, active and upcoming programmes, as well as current and future focus areas, with an emphasis on sharing knowledge, good practice and experience across the group.
UKRN Summer Intern Programme
Alongside the summer placement schemes run by our members, UKRN also operates a Summer Intern Programme. This is designed to provide the opportunity for university students to experience how regulation works in practice, through interacting with regulators at our network meetings and stakeholder events, as well as contributing to the wider work of UKRN through bespoke projects. In addition, we offer collaborative days of shared learning with a number of our member regulators, further broadening the knowledge of the UKs regulatory framework.
This internship is a ‘hands on’ opportunity, enabling development of presentation and interpersonal skills, demonstrating initiative, project delivery and learning in the ‘real world’ environment. The final task at the end of each programme is for the interns to produce and deliver our summer newsletter. You can read the 2024 version here. To find out more about our next scheme email UKRN@caa.co.uk
Member Graduate & Apprentice Programmes
Our members offer a range of early careers opportunities, including graduate and apprenticeship programmes. Details of these are published on our Jobs Board, as well as on our members’ own recruitment websites.
Supporting Professional Development
Continuous professional development is supported by UKRN members through providing staff with opportunities to keep their knowledge and skills up to date and expanding into new areas. UKRN is developing a range of supplementary programmes that provide additional learning and development opportunities, including on-the-job, formal and self-directed learning, as well as communities of interest.
Shared Training
We are building a catalogue of shared training opportunities, facilitating access to bespoke training courses to supplement those offered by our members. Recent courses have included introduction to economic regulation, cost of capital, data spreadsheet modelling and competition economics.
Through our HR Directors Network and associated working groups, UKRN engages with our members to develop opportunities for expansion of the training offering, providing cost-effective learning programmes that assist with professional growth and to meet the evolving needs and aspirations of our members.
Network Groups
Membership of UKRN and our community of networks provides opportunities to gain cross-sector experience through participation in our network groups. Find out more about the broad range of networks here.
Secondment Opportunities
Secondments and short-term placements within our regulatory community are often available and can be found on our Jobs Board.
Expanding your career in regulation
Our Next Generation Non-Executive Directors (NEDs) Scheme aims to create unique opportunities for UKRN member colleagues to boost their careers in regulation, by making a difference through non-executive work, as well as building a diverse pipeline of people who in future will be interested in applying to become NEDs, bringing a rich mix of thinking styles, perspectives and innovative ideas. Click below to learn more about our scheme.
I really enjoyed the variety of work and constant learning and development opportunities during my graduate scheme at Ofcom. Working on genuinely interesting and important topics with the friendliest colleagues meant I was never bored!
Being part of an organisation that is open to opinions from all and having the ability to present ideas that could have such a positive impact made us all proud to be part of Ofwat.
I found the world of aviation policy and regulation fascinating as it ignited my need for purpose, provided intellectual stimulus and an opportunity to use collateral skills I had acquired from working in the creative sector.
